New Election Results: Obama’s Victory Over Romney Bigger than Bush Over Kerry

As the Nov. 2012 election results continue to trickle in, it’s now clear that President Barack Obama’s victory over GOPer Mitt Romney is bigger than President George Bush’s victory of Senator John Kerry in 2004. First Read:

** Obama’s victory was more decisive than Bush’s in ’04: And here’s one final observation about the 2012 race. Per the excellent work by the Cook Political Report’s David Wasserman, Obama’s national lead over Romney continues to expand as votes keep on coming in. It’s now Obama 50.9%, Romney 47.4%. That’s a bigger (and more decisive) margin than Bush’s victory over John Kerry in 2004 (which was Bush 50.7% and Kerry 48.2%). What’s more, the president’s lead has grown to close to 3 points in Ohio, 4 points in Virginia and 6 points in Colorado. One doesn’t win Colorado by six points without winning swing voters; there isn’t a big-enough Democratic base to make that argument.

Even a popular vote lead of several million doesn’t rate as any kind of landslide victory or clear mandate from the American people. What it does indicate though, is that either Romney was such a lousy alternative, Obama’s vision was much more in tune with the middle class, or both. This is true because it happened in spite of Super packs, Citizens United, a botched first debate and, the fact that minorities turned out in force as a direct response to the offensive voter suppression attempts of the GOP. In short, Democracy prevailed anyway!

If there is any kind of direct mandate involved, it is that 60% of Americans think that wealthy tax payers should have their taxes increased. That’s going to be a hard sentiment for Republicans to ignore—at least if they continue to claim that they have the needs of ALL American’s at heart. So, the fiscal cliff might just be decisively avoided this time around!